Genesis 14:1 situates it between Shin'ar and Eylam in Southern Mesopotamia (today's Iraq). Its king Ar-Yoch fought in the War of the Kings.
Daniel 2:14 has an Ar-Yoch as captain of the guard in Bav-El (Babylon).
Not to be confused with the very common Yisra-li names El-Azar (אלעזר) - best known as a son of Aharon - and Eli-Ezer, chief steward of Av-Raham.
There is an open question as to whether it should be understood as El-Asar or Elasar. In the Masoretic text, where the Nekudot are added, Genesis 14 spells it אֶלָּסָר. If the Masoretes had considered the El to be the god-name, they would have spelled it with a patach beneath the samech, rather than a qamats. This does not mean that they are unequivocally correct, but it is certainly a helpful piece of evidence in drawing a conclusion. Alongside this, that third letter is a Samech, not a Seen, which is usually an indication of a foreign word being phoneticised into Yehudit. Add to this the geographical location, and the word was probably Sumerian or Akkadian, and therefore El would not have been one of their god-names anyway. This too is not conclusive, but it certainly adds weight to Elasar rather than El-Asar.
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